Can Google and Nokia Get Along?
The two largest open-source mobile platform initiatives are swirling up rumors that they’ll be joining forces to combine the Symbian and Android platforms spearheaded by Nokia and Google, respectively. Allegedly informed analysts at J. Gold Associates are claiming that a merger between Nokia and Google could kick off in three to six months, citing both companies open-source mobile operating systems.
Nokia previously announced that they’ll be taking the Symbian code-base public with the creation of the Symbian Foundation. And, Symbian recently extended a hand in friendship to Google, stating that they’d be “happy to collaborate with them.” Analysts are apparently taking the collaboration offer as a sign of merger-things to come.
But, that’s not the way Symbian, Nokia, or Google sees things. Officials from all three camps have gone on record and dismissed reports of a merger between the Symbian and Android efforts. Other analysts have also commented on the possibility of a merger between the two tech-giants, saying that the rumors are unsubstantiated.
Symbian is expected to match Android on its free-for-all pricing structure, giving open access to anyone wishing to use the mobile platform. The move should help Symbian compete on the same playing field as Android, and makes the case for both mobile platforms keeping to true to their path.
Nokia and Microsoft Getting Closer with Zune?
Nate from Zunescene reports that Nokia is working with the Microsoft Zune team on integrating their marketplace with Nokia devices. His sources tell him that it will not be an exclusive deal and can lead to other phone manufacturers. Hmm… Zune? People actually own these things?
There’s no estimated timeline when this will occur. I wonder how this will play with Nokia’s Ovi Service if it is true. The Music Store is not even available yet in many countries and last time I’ve checked, there’s no Nokia phones that run Windows Mobile.
Block Call on Your N95
StopCall for S60 is a free application for devices running Symbian S60 3rd edition, such as N95, that helps users deal with unwelcome disturbances. It’s a classic call filter application for blocking and rejecting unwanted incoming calls.
Setup is very simple, and there’s only “black list” to fill with numbers, either manually or by selecting contacts from the address book. In addition, there’s an option to reject the private/hidden numbers and/or even reject all incoming calls.
And that’s it. Once you’ve set it up, start StopCall and let the application do the call rejections for you. Here’s the link from where you can download StopCall for free.
Skyfire Browser is coming, slowly but surely
Although it is not accessible to everyone I would like to briefly inform you that long awaited Skyfire browser for Symbian phones is around the corner and we are one more step closer to the final release. At this moment, Skyfire is open for the selected private beta testers only and not available for public download. A release date of the final or at least first public beta version wasn’t given so far.
I signed up for the beta testing on January 31, it’s about six months ago and I still didn’t get invitation and therefore it is really hard to believe that process is on a first signed up basis as they claim?! I guess that I am out because they are forcing U.S. users right now and only sending an SMS invitations to the selected testers from United States
World’s Most Expensive iPhone
And it’s not even an iPhone 3G! The connoisseurs of tacky and the kings of gaudy at Amosu figured the uber-rich don’t pay much attention to the latest technology to hit the mobile phone market. They’ve crafted the Amosu Ultimo Diamond, sporting 1,179 diamonds weighing in at a whopping 16.18 karats.
The result - the world’s most expensive iPhone, not the world’s most expensive iPhone 3G. This ridiculously ugly $177,300 Amosu Ultimo Diamond is a first-generation iPhone covered in soo many diamonds that each and every one of these custom handsets are likely tied to some sort of blood-diamond conflict.
Nevertheless if you’ve got more money than good-taste, Amosu will trade you their diamond-encrusted iPhone and a year’s worth of VIP International Concierge Service for the price of a house in some parts of the US (or a really nice car).
Top 5 Social Network Services for Mobile
Our readers know that I’d like to do more and more with N95. Here are the top five services for not isolating yourself by playing your cell phone all the time.
Mobile social networking continues to win friends and influence people. A new report issued by market research firm In-Stat says so-called “millennials” are spearheading its growth, forecasting that nearly 30 million U.S. millennials will subscribe to mobile social networking services by 2012. According to In-Stat, blogging, photo and video sharing, location-based socialization services, games and messaging will all converge to deliver a complete social networking experience on the handset, but the pieces of the puzzle are still fitting into place. Here are five fledgling mobile social networking services worth watching.
Google Reader for S60 Phone
Right after Picasa another Google’s product gets optimized for our lovely S60 device and it looks much better now. And yes, that’s for N95 too.
There are several UI improvements; new Google Reader version is specifically optimized for viewing on S60 phones via default Safari based browser and offers almost the same functionality as the desktop version.
Of course, it is highly suggestible to set up your feeds in the desktop version, but then you can read and filter it by star, tag, or feed.
Beside the cosmetic improvements, newly updated reader forces opening all outgoing links in the new window, just like the desktop version which is great solution in my personal opinion, especially considering that Safari browser still lacks trivial open in new widow option!
You can try it by pointing default phone browser to http://www.google.com/reader/m/
Let the Screen Talks Back
Amir from Mobile Space has
compared two screen readers intended to enable visually-impaired users
to access the web via their Nokia devices fully, and brings us the results in a
handy post.
Pitching TALKS against Mobile Speaks, Amir has tried to find out
which ‘has the upper hand’. TALKS, for example, reads the HTML elements aloud,
and the user can then – via a series of button presses – navigate through the
tags to find the correct part of the page. It has the ability to allow the user
to jump back and forth through the HTML tags at will, whereas Mobile Speaks will
only allow you to do this after you have defined the ‘jump mode’. This
additional step, according to Amir, makes browsing ‘a bit difficult and
time-consuming’. Amir wraps up by saying that he can’t give a ‘precise’
answer to which is best, but prefers TALKS as it bypasses the defining ‘jump
mode’ stage.
